Collectors & Explorers

The Selby Antiquarian Collection

The Selby Antiquarian Collection

Dr Robert Bird Selby and his son William were medical
practioners in the Wigtownshire village of Port William. Between
1890 and 1916 they built up a collection of locally found
prehistoric tools. Most of the objects were discovered by local
farmers and ploughmen, many of whom were also patients of the
Selbys. It has been said that Robert Selby sometimes waived his
medical fees in return for a particularly important or attractive
archaeological find.

Robert Bird Selby was born in 1836. In 1857 he
enrolled at Edinburgh University to read medicine and in 1868, at
the age of 32, he was appointed Medical Officer of Health in the
parish of Kirkcowan. He married Margaret McDowall, daughter of a
Kirkcowan seed merchant, and in 1878 they moved to Port William.
The couple had six children, three of whom studied medicine at
Edinburgh.

The major landowner in the Port William area was Sir Herbert
Maxwell who inherited the Monreith estate in 1877. Maxwell was an
enthusiastic antiquarian, conducting his own excavations,
collecting artefacts and encouraging friends and tenants to bring
him their finds. It is likely that Maxwell influenced Robert Selby,
encouraging his interest in archaeology and persuading him to pass
over his finds. In 1888 Maxwell presented his own collection to the
Museum of Antiquities. This transfer of finds to Edinburgh may have
contributed to Selby's decision to start his own
collection.

William McDowall Selby was Robert's eldest son and he joined his
father's practice in Port William in 1897. He also inherited his
father's interest in antiquities and continued to build up the
collection. He added objects from outwith Wigtownshire including
flints from the Borders and even some stone axes from Bolivia.
William was active in village life. He was a church elder, a
Justice of the Peace and an active golfer and bowls player. He
doesn't appear to have maintained his interest in archaeology and
after 1916 little was added to the collection. William Selby died
in 1933 aged 60.

This wonderful example of a late Victorian private antiquarian
collection remained in the family home at Port William until the
1950s. In 2004 it was donated to Stranraer Museum by John Selby,
the grandson of William Selby.